Category: Uncategorized

If you thought monsters weren’t real, you may change your mind after this story. Recently, reports of a “creature” that had elongated teeth, wings, and a bushy tail began to trickle out of the Seidenberg space on our Westchester campus.

For a period of terror, it wasn’t unusual to hear screams of fright as the beast moved from room to room, alarming one staff member after another.

“Well, it couldn’t have been that bad – I didn’t hear any screaming,” said director of networking and IT support, Matthew Poli. Hang on, I just said there was screaming, and-

“I wanted to bring it home with me and keep it as a pet,” programmer Leanne Keeley said, hammering the final nail into the coffin of the atmosphere I’ve been building thus far.

Okay, fine. It wasn’t a petrifying monster, it was an adorable flying squirrel.

“Once in a while . . . an uninvited guest shows up on our floor,” said sr staff associate, Greni Francisco – and it’s true. Being located in the outskirts of picturesque Pleasantville, Pace’s traditional campus is bordered by woods and is no stranger to the odd woodland critter dropping by. Greni noted that staff shared a few jokes about the squirrel’s presence, “then it was time to go back to work.”

It’s almost like everybody is actively trying to stop me from blowing this out of the non-story it is.

Interestingly, the squirrel took up residence in the office of the dean for the greater part of its stay, though our dean, Jonathan Hill, did not actually get a chance to meet his small and furry counterpart. Despite not actually meeting in person to shake paws, Dean Hill had nothing but good things to say about his officemate. “I liked that squirrel. It had a very promising research agenda.”

Before long, the squirrel – as yet unidentified – was captured and released far enough away that it shouldn’t stop by again. But you never know.

“The day was nutty,” said program manager Jill Olimpieri. “I am sad that the Seidenberg Squirrel was not able to make an appearance on January 21st, which is National Squirrel Appreciation Day. This would have been a wonderful time to celebrate its presence.”

Perhaps the squirrel should have consulted its calendar.

“I hope that Dean Hill is able to find another furry friend here in PLV, as our dry human humor usually doesn’t keep him entertained around here,” Jill said. “We probably won’t see him very much now. Awww, nuts.”

Recently, the Seidenberg School welcomed teachers and high school students from 10 states for free training as part of an NSA grant to promote K-12 cybersecurity education.

The programs invited participants to visit Pace University’s Pleasantville campus for a week of cybersecurity education training. 25 high school teachers attended the first session, and 30 high school students the second. Since there’s plenty to cover, this post is all about the GenCyber teachers’ workshop and you’ll just have to wait for the next post to hear about Camp Cyberbot!

“The GenCyber summer programs aim to train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals by preparing our educators and by getting young students interested in thecybersecurityarea, which is one of strengths of the Seidenberg School at Pace University,” said Professor Li-Chiou Chen, the principal investigator of the project.

One of the attendees, Nathan VanDyke, a high school math andcomputer scienceteacher from Minnesota, said: “This is really a whole new world for us. Cybersecurity will be a major area of study and we need to prepare our students for this field.’’

VanDyke was one of 25 high school teachers from 10 states who were at Pace University from July 14-22 to attend a program at the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. The school is the only one in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) to host the teachers’ cybercamp as a part of the national GenCyber program funded by the National Security Agency to promote cybersecurity education at the K-to-12 level.

Teachers were introduced to Raspberry Pi, a tiny, inexpensive computer that makes it easier to teach computing concepts, such as encryption and programming in the classroom.

After the GenCyber workshop’s conclusion, participants were awarded with certificates of completion.

Next post, we’re talking about the second session, Camp Cyberbot, which saw high school students building underwater SeaPerch robots and testing them in the PLV campus pond!

Seidenberg alum, Marcelo Zimmler (Class of 2012), has just launched a kickstarted campaign of his own. After graduation, Zimmler moved to London to pursue an MBA, but over the years, he has been developing his own business he calls Mariscotti Art, and it is based out of NYC. The publishing company deals with original artwork and reproductions by Contemporary Abstract artist Osvaldo Mariscotti. The Kickstarter Zimmler has just launched is campaigning to create an entire collection of unique fashion accessories inspired by Mariscotti’s art. The accessories include (so far) scarves and shawls made of pure silk, cashmere, and Merino wool.

“I thought that by presenting the art in more familiar and accessible formats, people would be able to gain insights and greater appreciation for this particular kind of art which is very valuable but sometimes misunderstood.”

To take a look at the Mariscotti Art project, or to back the fund, you can get to the Kickstarter page here!

Last month twenty high school students from across the five boroughs embarked on a summer STEM adventure as part of Pace University’s STEM Collaboratory Camp, a collaboration of Pace and AT&T. For two weeks they learned and experimented with coding, robotics, Cybersecurity, Design Thinking and scientific research processes, among other skills. Then, they began to put their skills to work.

On August 1st, 2014 the camp culminated with students formally presenting their very own Cybersecurity mobile apps.

Hi, my name is Vaibhav Dubey. I’m a second-semester graduate student at theSeidenberg School of CSIS, specializing in Information Systems. With a little bit of perseverance – and some great guidance by the faculty here – over the last semester I have worked as a student consultant for the Pace Computer Resource Center, a proctor at the Student Advising Center, and most recently, as a Student Assistant for the Seidenberg School’s social media team.

Of late, I have been getting a lot of questions, via Facebook, from incoming international graduate students inquiring about their experience ahead. These inquiries include and revolve around which specialization/major is the best, which subjects to take, where to stay, which scholarships are available, visa requirements, and the most urgent question – “Will I get a job soon?” In attempts to relieve some stress I thought this would be this best way to reach out to everyone – with the top 5things you need to keep in mind once you have arrived.

1.Picking the right program for you: A few months ago, I was just as overwhelmed as you probably are right now! But the surprising news is – it really doesn’t matter which subjects you start out with! One of the nice things about the Seidenberg School is that you can take any combination of IT/CS /IS subjects you want. Even if you get a little confused along the way, you’ve got some really helpful academic advisers waiting to help: Kimberly Brazaitis (kbrazaitis@pace.edu) and Stephanie (selson@pace.edu.) Thanks to their help and guidance I was able to take a few introductory classes last semester and was able to figure out what I was interested in, but more importantly, what I was good at!

2.Getting a job: According to the law the United States, international students are not legally allowed to work off-campus until they complete two full semesters of study (Fall & Spring). But you can start working on-campus from the day you arrive! Bookmark Pace University’s eRecruiting Site and check it frequently. I found all three of my on campus jobs there. Note: To set up your eRecruiting account just call your local Career Services office (New York City: 212-346-1950/ Pleasantville & White Plains: (914-773-3361). As for getting a full-time job after you graduate – well, with a Pace Seidenberg degree, you are sure likely to stand out in the IT industry.

4.Scholarships: The Seidenberg School offers only merit-based scholarships to international students, and they are granted at the time of admission itself. What you should look out for is Graduate Assistantships (GA). A full G.A. can result in up to $12,000 worth of tuition!

5.Get socially involved on campus: Here at Pace University there are many opportunities to get involved and get connected with others. The Pace Indian Students Association, for example, is all about networking! PISA is a professional group of Indian students studying at Pace University. As an international student, I believe it is one of the best ways to make friends, interact with alumni, get leads on internships and find the only other people on campus willing to play cricket!

I hope this helps. In case you have any other questions, please feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll try to answer them.

For the average banking customer, little attention is paid to the security aspect of public wireless networks at banks. Today’s users are so accustomed to attaching to free, public Wi-Fi services that they inherently trust that financial institutions are protecting their data and confidential information.

However, that is not always true. Often times, financial institutions do not regularly monitor and update their routers which put their wireless networks at risk. As routers are the devices that handle network connectivity, they are susceptible to many of the same anomalies as tablets and personal computers, such as performing sluggishly, occasionally locking up, and much worse, becoming infected with malware. Just like their computer counterparts, routers are usually shipped with an operating system that has been installed by the manufacturer which needs to be occasionally refreshed with an updated version, begging the questions: “how often do banks actually perform this upgrade?” The answer, simply put, is that while some do, others don’t. Why is this so?

Professor James W. Gabberty

One of the primary reasons that financial institutions are loathe to update their routers’ operating systems has to do with the sheer number of routers deployed by mid- and large-sized banks and the common sense notion that when one router is updated, all the rest must likewise be updated, which requires substantial planning and attention to detail (not to mention significant time and money). While upgrading routers periodically is certainly a nuisance, not performing them en masse would be akin to individual users running disparate versions of the Microsoft operating system and office suites within a company – a seriously problematic proposition since the number of security vulnerabilities would skyrocket.

Many banks also simply don’t have an accurate, updated list of all the routers in their organization, not to mention each router’s individual IOS level and almost certainly, its configuration. Asset management has long been a problem for all companies and banks are no exception. Corporate policy is frequently bypassed and end-users often connect their own devices (USBs, smartphones, and even routers) into the corporate backbone. While there are security awareness techniques designed to stem the rush of employees connecting non-corporate devices to the company’s IT infrastructure, insider activity is still the number one vector of information security breaches within all corporations. Moreover, since keeping track of all infrastructure equipment is a monumental task – especially since proper change management policies are often by-passed, many firms don’t perform as good a measure of due diligence in terms of patching routers as they should.

Still another reason why router upgrades are problematic for financial institutions is tied to the configuration that many routers have been specifically tuned, or set at. Internet-facing ports are a time-tested invitation for exploitation from outside the firm and significant time and effort must be expended to ensure that these ports are all closed while simultaneously enabling only those ports that are critical for the firm to operate. Each time a router is updated, the configuration is lost and must be set again to match corporate policy guidelines; failure to reset the proper configuration causes vulnerabilities inside the firm to reappear.

Understanding some reasons why financial institutions do not invest the proper time needed for router software updates, here are some simple questions for IT security management to simplify the process and ensure protection for wireless networks: (1) Do you have a list of all routers in your organization, the IOS level and the configuration? (2) Have you validated the authenticity of the vendor you purchased your routers from? (3) When was the last time you checked your routers’ configuration and does it match policy? (4) Have you checked that it hasn’t been modified on a daily or weekly basis? (5) Are you logging improper events and staying vigilant? (6) Are you continuously making sure that there are no open ports facing the internet?

Due diligence on the part of maintaining your bank’s many routers can go a long way in ensuring that your customers – and their trust – remain loyal.

Gabberty is a professor of information systems at Pace University in New York City. An alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University Polytechnic Institute, he has served as an expert witness in telecommunication and information security at the federal and state levels and holds numerous certifications from SANS & ISACA.